Home birth

Just looking for people with experience of home births I’m absolutely determined to have one now and this is my first so want to go in armed with all the info and personal experience stories possible! They are already worried about me going into hospital anyway because I have PTSD and said they’d recommend I have an early epidural but I really don’t want that I’d like to give birth at home and be as relaxed as possible

Comments (7)

I had a homebirth.
Read up on hypnobirth and practice to help you stay more in control.
If you are confident in your partners ability to speak up for you with medical professionals great if not would you consider a doula?
Look up your rights etc vs medical policy. Big part of me feeling comfortable with midwives etc was knowing I could ask for their reasons why they felt things should be as they are then make my own decision and I could refuse if I didn't feel it was right. Eg I didn't want to midwife with me all the time, I wanted her in a separate room but to come in for checks as needed till things progressed further. This helped me relax better and midwives were happy to do this. I've done this with both births now.
In my experience though especially for first time mums they are quicker to push the hospital route. I was meant to have a hb with my first but all through the labour I could tell they were itching to get off their shift, kept saying they needed to swap soon. They then suspected he had a heart murmur when listening to the heartbeat so we transferred to hospital. At the hospital his heart was fine during labour and after. But I wouldn't t change my decision if that were to happen again.
Second child midwives were a lot more relaxed and felt confident.

I had a homebirth.
Read up on hypnobirth and practice to help you stay more ...

Posted
18/01/2018

I had a homebirth.
Read up on hypnobirth and practice to help you stay more in control.
If you are confident in your partners ability to speak up for you with medical professionals great if not would you consider a doula?
Look up your rights etc vs medical policy. Big part of me feeling comfortable with midwives etc was knowing I could ask for their reasons why they felt things should be as they are then make my own decision and I could refuse if I didn't feel it was right. Eg I didn't want to midwife with me all the time, I wanted her in a separate room but to come in for checks as needed till things progressed further. This helped me relax better and midwives were happy to do this. I've done this with both births now.
In my experience though especially for first time mums they are quicker to push the hospital route. I was meant to have a hb with my first but all through the labour I could tell they were itching to get off their shift, kept saying they needed to swap soon. They then suspected he had a heart murmur when listening to the heartbeat so we transferred to hospital. At the hospital his heart was fine during labour and after. But I wouldn't t change my decision if that were to happen again.
Second child midwives were a lot more relaxed and felt confident.
I plan on a homebirth with this baby.

Thank you! I’ve not heard any bad things about home births yet it’s always been positive, I’m just worried the midwife will try and put me off but I honestly think the stress of even thinking about going into hospital will be too much for me. Will definitely look into all these things, thanks again xx

My last baby was a homebirth and it was brilliant. Night and day compared to ...

Posted
18/01/2018

My last baby was a homebirth and it was brilliant. Night and day compared to my first!

My friend said the exact same to me about hers! She had a horrible experience the first time in hospital and put her foot down the second time and demanded a home birth, told me to do the same. I can understand it’s more work for the midwives but I really think I’m set on it now! Thank you x

My friend said the exact same to me about hers! She had a horrible experience...

Posted
18/01/2018

My friend said the exact same to me about hers! She had a horrible experience the first time in hospital and put her foot down the second time and demanded a home birth, told me to do the same. I can understand it’s more work for the midwives but I really think I’m set on it now! Thank you x

They have a special team of homebirth midwives who choose to specialise in it, so don’t worry about that- they love it! My community midwife with my first baby tried to persuade me to have one, but because it was my first I wasn’t keen. She ended up being one of my homebirth midwives with my second which was lovely. I ran into her on a night out once and she told me it was the highlight of her career when she found out she was the reason I decided to have a homebirth in the end!

They have a special team of homebirth midwives who choose to specialise in it...

Posted
18/01/2018

They have a special team of homebirth midwives who choose to specialise in it, so don’t worry about that- they love it! My community midwife with my first baby tried to persuade me to have one, but because it was my first I wasn’t keen. She ended up being one of my homebirth midwives with my second which was lovely. I ran into her on a night out once and she told me it was the highlight of her career when she found out she was the reason I decided to have a homebirth in the end!

Ahh this makes me feel even better about it thank you! I am going to do some reading up on it just panicked because I’d been told midwives aren’t keen on it!!

Ahh this makes me feel even better about it thank you! I am going to do some ...

Posted
18/01/2018

Ahh this makes me feel even better about it thank you! I am going to do some reading up on it just panicked because I’d been told midwives aren’t keen on it!!

You’ll often find that Doctors are less keen than midwives on homebirths. Doctors are trained to always think about what could go wrong and the medicalisation of something like birth comes as second nature. Midwives are often much better at treating birth as a natural process.

That said, some are more keen for homebirths as long as you’ve had one, straightforward birth already.

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